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1987-1994
The easiest place to start would be my first Chelsea game. That was in February 1987 when my Dad took me to my first
match as a treat for my 9th birthday. And what a match to have as your first game! Chelsea against Manchester United at
Stamford Bridge. We drew 1-1 and Micky Hazard scored. (See video).
United also managed to hit the post and the bar in one shot. A United player fell over about an hour after he had been
tackled. Cue boos and jeers from the Chelsea fans. I cried when we scored.
The late 80s was an era from when footballers had proper footballing names. Kerry Dixon. Micky Hazard. Joe McLaughlin.
David Speedie. Gordon Durie. Pat Nevin. Kevin Wilson. Clive Wilson. (Unrelated).
These were my heroes and always will be. Just like older supporters will always see Osgood as their hero, Dixon was mine.
A superb striker, a great person, a Chelsea legend. At the time I read Roy of the Rovers, and he resembled the Chelsea
striker to a tee as well. Well, in my eyes anyway. When Shearer scores, he raises one hand in the air. When Dixon scored,
he raised both arms in the air - whether he had scored or not. I always copied this in the playground if I had toe punted the
tennis ball in between the school bags representing goalposts at break time. When I heard the news that Arsenal were
trying to sign him, I was nearly in tears. Luckily he didn't. I found it tough to adjust when the team changed and new faces
were brought in, so when Dixon ended his career I felt like a part of Chelsea had died inside me. It was akin to getting
dumped by your first girlfriend. After a while your heart hardens and you get used to the fact that players move on.
We also had a few youngsters coming through. Young fans can always relate to the younger generation. Jason Cundy.
Graham Stuart. Graeme Le Saux. Andy Myers. Eddie Newton. Damian Matthew. I even chose my middle name as Damian
during my second Communion. Unfortunately Chelsea have rarely had youngsters break through to become world class
players. At the moment John Terry is the only one who is truly brilliant. Jason Cundy was always a sore point. When we
sold him to Spurs there was graffiti on the bridge outside the East stand exit proclaiming, "Bring Cundy back!". He scored
a brilliantly fluky goal for Spurs from the halfway line before his career sadly ended due to injury. One of the few players
who we genuinely loved despite him joining our North London rivals.
It was not until the next season that I began to go more regularly. My second match was a thriller. Chelsea played
Nottingham Forest and having been 3-1 down at half time, fought back to win 4-3 in August 1987. My love for Chelsea was
cemented. Later on that season we played Everton at home. Football matches were the first place where I had heard so
much swearing and it soon rubbed off on me. I recall shouting at Southall and calling him a fat bastard. I swear he looked
in my direction, probably incredulous that a 10 year old had such a filthy mouth!
The Wimbledon away game that season was a good laugh, and my first ever away game. Plough Lane was a funny little
ground, but at least it had some character. It is disgraceful what has happened to Wimbledon since and I hope it never
happens again. The relocation of Wimbledon to Milton Keynes showed one of the many things that is wrong with the game
nowadays. I always had fondness for the club and their fans (all three of them!). In any case, we were 2-0 down in this
game and the mighty moustachioed Northern Ireland striker Kevin Wilson scored two goals to earn us a point. I would not
say by any means that he was world class, but he struck up a great partnership with Dixon and regularly scored at least
ten goals per season for us.
Oxford at home will stick in my memory as it was where Eddie Niedzwiecki's career was ended by a terrible injury.
I also had the pleasure to see a great Liverpool team secure the league with a 1-1 draw at the Bridge. Dalglish, Rush and
Co. John Barnes scored a magnificent free kick against us.
The season ended terribly as I stood in the Shed and saw us relegated. Chelsea fans invaded the pitch and rushed
towards the Boro fans. And it wasn't to try to shake their hands and congratulate them! It was because of Chelsea fans'
behaviour that my Dad had limited the matches he went to, and was sceptical of following Chelsea away. After that match I
cried - but my support never waivered.
From the 1988 season until now I have had a season ticket every year apart from one when I had to spend a year in
France as part of my degree.
Being a Chelsea fan has never been easy. I never dreamt we would win anything of note. I saw some pretty awful games
although looking back now I feel more sorry for the fans who had to watch the Blues in the late 70s and early 80s.
However, there was nothing like being at a Chelsea game. We would lose to Scunthorpe in the League Cup but always
seemed to get results against the better clubs. You just never knew!
Many Chelsea fans look at the times when we were poor as being the best times to be a supporter. Chelsea took loads
away and at each match we had the hardcore fanbase which we see less and less of each year as genuine fans who now
have domestic responsibilities are priced out of the market.
We also saw some weird things at the time: a formula one car spraying fans in the Shed with pebbles as it drove around
the dog track and Boy George singing at half time (not appreciated by the fans for some reason) among them.
One memory from before matches was seeing the same scratchcard seller with his jumper woven out of Chelsea scarves
outside the East Stand before the game. We always used to seem to have the same songs blaring out over the tannoy:
Alexander O'Neal's Criticize; Harry J All Stars' The Liquidator; Van Halen's Jump. We began to play songs for when the
team came out to motivate them. Among those I recall was Europe's "The Final Countdown", and later, quite ironically in
my view at the time, played Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" which the opposition fans tended to dance and sing to instead
of us. For some reason I remember Sheffield Wednesday fans especially dancing to it. Perhaps they were being
counter-ironic if there is such a phrase.
Despite some Chelsea fans nowadays being dismissive of rugby, which in my opinion is the second best sport in the world
after football, I also remember us singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" if England had won a game in the old five nations.
There also seemed to be aggro at virtually every home match at the time. I tended to ignore it and was more interested in
watching the game. There would be pockets of fighting breaking out from time to time. I started going towards the end of
the worst phase of English hooliganism, but it would be foolish to say those days are completely over. In fact at the
moment it seems to be resurging. Whether this reflects the feelings of disgruntled fans at the way the game is going or
whether there is something much deeper is yet to be seen.
The first trophy I saw us win was the 2nd division title. That felt good. Upon promotion we somehow finished 5th the next
season.
We beat Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 at home in our second home game of the season. Cue spontaneous chants against
their manager, "He's big, he's fat, he's gonna get the sack, Atkinson, Atkinson"!
Charlton away was a sickener and was played at Selhurst Park. We lost 3-0 and Paul Mortimer scored a hat trick.
I went up to Everton for my first away game outside of London at the age of 11. Chelsea won 1-0 and Steve Clarke scored
in off the post. Martin Keown did a back pass to Southall from the half way line that went off for a corner. Myself and my
Dad were in the Everton end and when Chelsea scored, were the only fans in the stand to jump up and go bonkers. We
quickly sat down again though! I remember looking over to the Chelsea fans in the away end and thinking, "so that's how
we look when we score away!". It was utter pandemonium in the Chelsea end. After the game I got to meet my heroes.
Dixon, Beasant, Monkou, Nevin.
That was the last time we were top of the league for a long time. Typical Chelsea, we did not win any of our next 11
games! This included a run of losing 5-2, 4-2, 5-2. It's funny how you remember the crap games. Among these was a draw
2-2 draw against Palace at Selhurst Park where the Chelsea fans disgracefully chanted, "the referee's a paki". My
grandfather, who attended many Chelsea matches straight after the Second World War after moving to England from
Poland was so incensed by the antics of the fans that we left with 10 minutes to go. Of course, Le Saux scored in the last
minute to equalise and I have rarely left a match early since. There is still an undercurrent of racism at football despite the
fact that we are supposed to be more enlightened fans nowadays. I once met a Chelsea fan who stopped going to games
when we signed out first black player.
Chelsea 0 Norwich 0 that season was one of the worst matches I had ever seen. In the next match programme you could
see me as a podgy kid in the background of a picture in the East Lower family section. Surprisingly this was the only
moment in the match when I actually watching play, as the match was so tedious. These were times when people regularly
sang, "what a waste of money" regarding the cost of their tickets. At about the same time Chelsea's fans also sang Monty
Python's "always look on the bright side of life" when we were losing. We were one of the few supporters who still had a
sense of humour when things were bad, and that was another great reason to be a fan.
At least we won a cup at the end of the season that was on a par with the Champions League trophy: yes - the Zenith
Data Systems Cup. Dorigo beating Boro with a marvellous free kick. And not the first time we would beat the club that
relegated us in a Cup Final either!
With it being a world cup year too I recall the Chelsea club shop selling T-shirts with slogans on them such as, "Chelsea
Hooligans on tour in Italy". I doubt they would get away with that nowadays!
The next couple of seasons were a blur. Beating Spurs away 3-0 in the League Cup in 1991 was a highlight. I remember
T-Shirts being sold saying "Blue Murder - 3-0". There was also a fantastic game at Derby with the final score being 6-4 -
and there was talk at the time of widening goal posts to make the game more exciting! Chelsea were annihilated in the
League Cup semis by Sheffield Wednesday. That was the closest Chelsea had come to a major final for a long time. The
season ended on a typical Chelsea note. We lost 7-0 - yes 7-0 - to Forest away. I was at a school friend's birthday party,
and when I looked on teletext I thought there had been a typo. It's when you remember games like this that you should be
grateful for the success Chelsea has now. It also keeps my feet to the ground knowing that someday Chelsea will be a
poor side again. At present that should not happen for at least 10 years.
Funnily enough we won the next game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge 4-2. To put it mildly, there was never a dull
moment with Chelsea - on or off the pitch.
Joe Allon was supposed to be Kerry Dixon's successor. We always laud our new strikers, and in his first game against
Wimbledon on the first day of the season he scored the equaliser having come off the bench with more or less his first
touch. We had found our Messiah. Even more so because he ran to the Shed End and celebrated as if he had scored the
winning goal in the World Cup. Unfortunately he did little more for Chelsea, but will always be remembered fondly by
Chelsea fans for that celebration.
Later that season we played Sunderland in the 6th round of the FA Cup. Kerry Dixon took a shot that was so bad, that
when it went off the referee gave Chelsea a corner kick believing there was no way someone could hit the ball that poorly.
Chelsea scored from the resulting corner, and earned a replay at Roker Park. Again we went behind only to equalise. With
only a few minutes left it looked as if Chelsea had earned a replay. Graham Stuart stood in front of the away fans and lead
the them to song like a conductor leading an orchestra. Then Sunderland scored, and we were out yet again, 2-1 the
result.
We sold Boyd and Allen soon after. Clive Allen had been a consistent goalscorer for us and we sold him to West Ham. He
scored a magnificent goal for them against us soon after, and many Chelsea fans stood up to applaud (yes - Chelsea fans
applauding a West Ham player!). Luckily we won 2-1 against the Irons.
In the last home game of the season, Paul Merson scored to earn a point for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge with one of the
best goals ever against Chelsea - he hit the ball from the right wing and it landed in the goal in front of the Shed.
At school it was tough being a Chelsea fan. In my first school in South East London there were two Chelsea fans out of
1,000 kids. In my secondary school there were three out of a total of 1,400. Despite all the glory hunting kids purporting to
support Spurs, Liverpool, Manchester United, we were the only ones who regularly went to games out of the bigger clubs.
The only other fans who went regularly to see their team play were the Palace fans, and one Charlton fan. Even worse, we
only won our first real trophy after I had left school! Football was always my passion and I remember us playing at break
time with all the usual excuses: "You can't join because you cheat"; "You can't join in because you foul"; "Sorry, we already
have enough players"; "The goalie wasn't ready"; "You can have monkey rush but we have a 5-0 headstart"; "It's not a
goal as in a real game the referee would have blown for a goal kick". Those were the days! You could never had a
reasoned footballing argument, as being a Chelsea fan you could not compete with other clubs' boasts. The only thing I
could retort from any banter was asking the perpetrator how many Manchester United games he had been to, and why he
supported them despite being a Londoner!
92-93 was a pretty nondescript season. The only memories were bad ones. The worst being the loss to Crystal Palace in
the league cup at Selhurst on a pitch so muddy that one of Chelsea's efforts on goal stuck in the pitch about a yard from
the line. This was one of many Chelsea games that I went to where afterwards I found it difficult to sleep. It was also the
game where Le Saux threw his shirt to the ground upon being substituted. Another was the infamous 3-2 loss to Norwich
at home. Norwich had arrived with just minutes to spare owing to heavy traffic. For the first half they played like a team that
hadn't been able to warm up and Chelsea swiftly went into a 2-0 lead. Then disaster. Dave Beasant let in two goals that
had comically slipped through his fingers and eventually we lost the match 3-2. Beasant was another one of the old
Wimbledon boys we had brought in and in my eyes was a superb keeper. Ian Porterfield was a disgrace. After that game
he publicly humiliated Beasant by saying the keeper should never play for Chelsea again. Beasant had the last laugh as
Porterfield was sacked before the end of the season. I recently met Dave and that game still rankles with him. He was, and
still is, the nicest person I have ever met and always had time to sign autographs for the youngsters. For me, a Chelsea
legend.
Suddenly things were changing. Glenn Hoddle joined as player manager. There is no doubt that he was the catalyst for
Chelsea's current success. He changed players diets; introduced a more rigid and structured training regime; he instilled
professionalism on the players.
In a pre season friendly in the Makita tournament Chelsea annihilated Spurs 4-0 in the final with Cascarino scoring 3 and
Peacock the other.
We were beginning to see a better standard of football and even reached the final of the FA Cup for the first time since we
had won it in 1970.
This also included a bizarre game where we played Barnet at Stamford Bridge despite it originally being an away game.
Glenn's brother, Carl played and we embarrassingly drew 0-0 "away" - a match we could have lost - then beat them 4-0 at
"home". We had no difficult ties to reach the final. Barnet, Oxford, Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday, Luton. Kerry Dixon
returned to play against Chelsea for Luton in the semi-final at Wembley and had his name chanted throughout the game
by the Chelsea fans.
Then came the final. It was a grey, drizzling day and one I shall never forget. Could we beat the best team in the land? We
had done the double over them in the league and things were looking rosy as Peacock hit the bar with a shot. Then
Chelsea's favourite referee, David Elleray, awarded a dubious penalty to United and the floodgates opened. Eventually
losing 4-0 we trudged home with my tears mixing with the rain as some Chelsea fans took turns to kick some Manchester
United fans up the bum. That was the team I wanted to emulate. Cantona, McClair, Hughes. What a team that was.
The plus side was that we had qualified for the Cup Winners Cup!
match as a treat for my 9th birthday. And what a match to have as your first game! Chelsea against Manchester United at
Stamford Bridge. We drew 1-1 and Micky Hazard scored. (See video).
United also managed to hit the post and the bar in one shot. A United player fell over about an hour after he had been
tackled. Cue boos and jeers from the Chelsea fans. I cried when we scored.
The late 80s was an era from when footballers had proper footballing names. Kerry Dixon. Micky Hazard. Joe McLaughlin.
David Speedie. Gordon Durie. Pat Nevin. Kevin Wilson. Clive Wilson. (Unrelated).
These were my heroes and always will be. Just like older supporters will always see Osgood as their hero, Dixon was mine.
A superb striker, a great person, a Chelsea legend. At the time I read Roy of the Rovers, and he resembled the Chelsea
striker to a tee as well. Well, in my eyes anyway. When Shearer scores, he raises one hand in the air. When Dixon scored,
he raised both arms in the air - whether he had scored or not. I always copied this in the playground if I had toe punted the
tennis ball in between the school bags representing goalposts at break time. When I heard the news that Arsenal were
trying to sign him, I was nearly in tears. Luckily he didn't. I found it tough to adjust when the team changed and new faces
were brought in, so when Dixon ended his career I felt like a part of Chelsea had died inside me. It was akin to getting
dumped by your first girlfriend. After a while your heart hardens and you get used to the fact that players move on.
We also had a few youngsters coming through. Young fans can always relate to the younger generation. Jason Cundy.
Graham Stuart. Graeme Le Saux. Andy Myers. Eddie Newton. Damian Matthew. I even chose my middle name as Damian
during my second Communion. Unfortunately Chelsea have rarely had youngsters break through to become world class
players. At the moment John Terry is the only one who is truly brilliant. Jason Cundy was always a sore point. When we
sold him to Spurs there was graffiti on the bridge outside the East stand exit proclaiming, "Bring Cundy back!". He scored
a brilliantly fluky goal for Spurs from the halfway line before his career sadly ended due to injury. One of the few players
who we genuinely loved despite him joining our North London rivals.
It was not until the next season that I began to go more regularly. My second match was a thriller. Chelsea played
Nottingham Forest and having been 3-1 down at half time, fought back to win 4-3 in August 1987. My love for Chelsea was
cemented. Later on that season we played Everton at home. Football matches were the first place where I had heard so
much swearing and it soon rubbed off on me. I recall shouting at Southall and calling him a fat bastard. I swear he looked
in my direction, probably incredulous that a 10 year old had such a filthy mouth!
The Wimbledon away game that season was a good laugh, and my first ever away game. Plough Lane was a funny little
ground, but at least it had some character. It is disgraceful what has happened to Wimbledon since and I hope it never
happens again. The relocation of Wimbledon to Milton Keynes showed one of the many things that is wrong with the game
nowadays. I always had fondness for the club and their fans (all three of them!). In any case, we were 2-0 down in this
game and the mighty moustachioed Northern Ireland striker Kevin Wilson scored two goals to earn us a point. I would not
say by any means that he was world class, but he struck up a great partnership with Dixon and regularly scored at least
ten goals per season for us.
Oxford at home will stick in my memory as it was where Eddie Niedzwiecki's career was ended by a terrible injury.
I also had the pleasure to see a great Liverpool team secure the league with a 1-1 draw at the Bridge. Dalglish, Rush and
Co. John Barnes scored a magnificent free kick against us.
The season ended terribly as I stood in the Shed and saw us relegated. Chelsea fans invaded the pitch and rushed
towards the Boro fans. And it wasn't to try to shake their hands and congratulate them! It was because of Chelsea fans'
behaviour that my Dad had limited the matches he went to, and was sceptical of following Chelsea away. After that match I
cried - but my support never waivered.
From the 1988 season until now I have had a season ticket every year apart from one when I had to spend a year in
France as part of my degree.
Being a Chelsea fan has never been easy. I never dreamt we would win anything of note. I saw some pretty awful games
although looking back now I feel more sorry for the fans who had to watch the Blues in the late 70s and early 80s.
However, there was nothing like being at a Chelsea game. We would lose to Scunthorpe in the League Cup but always
seemed to get results against the better clubs. You just never knew!
Many Chelsea fans look at the times when we were poor as being the best times to be a supporter. Chelsea took loads
away and at each match we had the hardcore fanbase which we see less and less of each year as genuine fans who now
have domestic responsibilities are priced out of the market.
We also saw some weird things at the time: a formula one car spraying fans in the Shed with pebbles as it drove around
the dog track and Boy George singing at half time (not appreciated by the fans for some reason) among them.
One memory from before matches was seeing the same scratchcard seller with his jumper woven out of Chelsea scarves
outside the East Stand before the game. We always used to seem to have the same songs blaring out over the tannoy:
Alexander O'Neal's Criticize; Harry J All Stars' The Liquidator; Van Halen's Jump. We began to play songs for when the
team came out to motivate them. Among those I recall was Europe's "The Final Countdown", and later, quite ironically in
my view at the time, played Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" which the opposition fans tended to dance and sing to instead
of us. For some reason I remember Sheffield Wednesday fans especially dancing to it. Perhaps they were being
counter-ironic if there is such a phrase.
Despite some Chelsea fans nowadays being dismissive of rugby, which in my opinion is the second best sport in the world
after football, I also remember us singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" if England had won a game in the old five nations.
There also seemed to be aggro at virtually every home match at the time. I tended to ignore it and was more interested in
watching the game. There would be pockets of fighting breaking out from time to time. I started going towards the end of
the worst phase of English hooliganism, but it would be foolish to say those days are completely over. In fact at the
moment it seems to be resurging. Whether this reflects the feelings of disgruntled fans at the way the game is going or
whether there is something much deeper is yet to be seen.
The first trophy I saw us win was the 2nd division title. That felt good. Upon promotion we somehow finished 5th the next
season.
We beat Sheffield Wednesday 4-0 at home in our second home game of the season. Cue spontaneous chants against
their manager, "He's big, he's fat, he's gonna get the sack, Atkinson, Atkinson"!
Charlton away was a sickener and was played at Selhurst Park. We lost 3-0 and Paul Mortimer scored a hat trick.
I went up to Everton for my first away game outside of London at the age of 11. Chelsea won 1-0 and Steve Clarke scored
in off the post. Martin Keown did a back pass to Southall from the half way line that went off for a corner. Myself and my
Dad were in the Everton end and when Chelsea scored, were the only fans in the stand to jump up and go bonkers. We
quickly sat down again though! I remember looking over to the Chelsea fans in the away end and thinking, "so that's how
we look when we score away!". It was utter pandemonium in the Chelsea end. After the game I got to meet my heroes.
Dixon, Beasant, Monkou, Nevin.
That was the last time we were top of the league for a long time. Typical Chelsea, we did not win any of our next 11
games! This included a run of losing 5-2, 4-2, 5-2. It's funny how you remember the crap games. Among these was a draw
2-2 draw against Palace at Selhurst Park where the Chelsea fans disgracefully chanted, "the referee's a paki". My
grandfather, who attended many Chelsea matches straight after the Second World War after moving to England from
Poland was so incensed by the antics of the fans that we left with 10 minutes to go. Of course, Le Saux scored in the last
minute to equalise and I have rarely left a match early since. There is still an undercurrent of racism at football despite the
fact that we are supposed to be more enlightened fans nowadays. I once met a Chelsea fan who stopped going to games
when we signed out first black player.
Chelsea 0 Norwich 0 that season was one of the worst matches I had ever seen. In the next match programme you could
see me as a podgy kid in the background of a picture in the East Lower family section. Surprisingly this was the only
moment in the match when I actually watching play, as the match was so tedious. These were times when people regularly
sang, "what a waste of money" regarding the cost of their tickets. At about the same time Chelsea's fans also sang Monty
Python's "always look on the bright side of life" when we were losing. We were one of the few supporters who still had a
sense of humour when things were bad, and that was another great reason to be a fan.
At least we won a cup at the end of the season that was on a par with the Champions League trophy: yes - the Zenith
Data Systems Cup. Dorigo beating Boro with a marvellous free kick. And not the first time we would beat the club that
relegated us in a Cup Final either!
With it being a world cup year too I recall the Chelsea club shop selling T-shirts with slogans on them such as, "Chelsea
Hooligans on tour in Italy". I doubt they would get away with that nowadays!
The next couple of seasons were a blur. Beating Spurs away 3-0 in the League Cup in 1991 was a highlight. I remember
T-Shirts being sold saying "Blue Murder - 3-0". There was also a fantastic game at Derby with the final score being 6-4 -
and there was talk at the time of widening goal posts to make the game more exciting! Chelsea were annihilated in the
League Cup semis by Sheffield Wednesday. That was the closest Chelsea had come to a major final for a long time. The
season ended on a typical Chelsea note. We lost 7-0 - yes 7-0 - to Forest away. I was at a school friend's birthday party,
and when I looked on teletext I thought there had been a typo. It's when you remember games like this that you should be
grateful for the success Chelsea has now. It also keeps my feet to the ground knowing that someday Chelsea will be a
poor side again. At present that should not happen for at least 10 years.
Funnily enough we won the next game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge 4-2. To put it mildly, there was never a dull
moment with Chelsea - on or off the pitch.
Joe Allon was supposed to be Kerry Dixon's successor. We always laud our new strikers, and in his first game against
Wimbledon on the first day of the season he scored the equaliser having come off the bench with more or less his first
touch. We had found our Messiah. Even more so because he ran to the Shed End and celebrated as if he had scored the
winning goal in the World Cup. Unfortunately he did little more for Chelsea, but will always be remembered fondly by
Chelsea fans for that celebration.
Later that season we played Sunderland in the 6th round of the FA Cup. Kerry Dixon took a shot that was so bad, that
when it went off the referee gave Chelsea a corner kick believing there was no way someone could hit the ball that poorly.
Chelsea scored from the resulting corner, and earned a replay at Roker Park. Again we went behind only to equalise. With
only a few minutes left it looked as if Chelsea had earned a replay. Graham Stuart stood in front of the away fans and lead
the them to song like a conductor leading an orchestra. Then Sunderland scored, and we were out yet again, 2-1 the
result.
We sold Boyd and Allen soon after. Clive Allen had been a consistent goalscorer for us and we sold him to West Ham. He
scored a magnificent goal for them against us soon after, and many Chelsea fans stood up to applaud (yes - Chelsea fans
applauding a West Ham player!). Luckily we won 2-1 against the Irons.
In the last home game of the season, Paul Merson scored to earn a point for Arsenal at Stamford Bridge with one of the
best goals ever against Chelsea - he hit the ball from the right wing and it landed in the goal in front of the Shed.
At school it was tough being a Chelsea fan. In my first school in South East London there were two Chelsea fans out of
1,000 kids. In my secondary school there were three out of a total of 1,400. Despite all the glory hunting kids purporting to
support Spurs, Liverpool, Manchester United, we were the only ones who regularly went to games out of the bigger clubs.
The only other fans who went regularly to see their team play were the Palace fans, and one Charlton fan. Even worse, we
only won our first real trophy after I had left school! Football was always my passion and I remember us playing at break
time with all the usual excuses: "You can't join because you cheat"; "You can't join in because you foul"; "Sorry, we already
have enough players"; "The goalie wasn't ready"; "You can have monkey rush but we have a 5-0 headstart"; "It's not a
goal as in a real game the referee would have blown for a goal kick". Those were the days! You could never had a
reasoned footballing argument, as being a Chelsea fan you could not compete with other clubs' boasts. The only thing I
could retort from any banter was asking the perpetrator how many Manchester United games he had been to, and why he
supported them despite being a Londoner!
92-93 was a pretty nondescript season. The only memories were bad ones. The worst being the loss to Crystal Palace in
the league cup at Selhurst on a pitch so muddy that one of Chelsea's efforts on goal stuck in the pitch about a yard from
the line. This was one of many Chelsea games that I went to where afterwards I found it difficult to sleep. It was also the
game where Le Saux threw his shirt to the ground upon being substituted. Another was the infamous 3-2 loss to Norwich
at home. Norwich had arrived with just minutes to spare owing to heavy traffic. For the first half they played like a team that
hadn't been able to warm up and Chelsea swiftly went into a 2-0 lead. Then disaster. Dave Beasant let in two goals that
had comically slipped through his fingers and eventually we lost the match 3-2. Beasant was another one of the old
Wimbledon boys we had brought in and in my eyes was a superb keeper. Ian Porterfield was a disgrace. After that game
he publicly humiliated Beasant by saying the keeper should never play for Chelsea again. Beasant had the last laugh as
Porterfield was sacked before the end of the season. I recently met Dave and that game still rankles with him. He was, and
still is, the nicest person I have ever met and always had time to sign autographs for the youngsters. For me, a Chelsea
legend.
Suddenly things were changing. Glenn Hoddle joined as player manager. There is no doubt that he was the catalyst for
Chelsea's current success. He changed players diets; introduced a more rigid and structured training regime; he instilled
professionalism on the players.
In a pre season friendly in the Makita tournament Chelsea annihilated Spurs 4-0 in the final with Cascarino scoring 3 and
Peacock the other.
We were beginning to see a better standard of football and even reached the final of the FA Cup for the first time since we
had won it in 1970.
This also included a bizarre game where we played Barnet at Stamford Bridge despite it originally being an away game.
Glenn's brother, Carl played and we embarrassingly drew 0-0 "away" - a match we could have lost - then beat them 4-0 at
"home". We had no difficult ties to reach the final. Barnet, Oxford, Wolves, Sheffield Wednesday, Luton. Kerry Dixon
returned to play against Chelsea for Luton in the semi-final at Wembley and had his name chanted throughout the game
by the Chelsea fans.
Then came the final. It was a grey, drizzling day and one I shall never forget. Could we beat the best team in the land? We
had done the double over them in the league and things were looking rosy as Peacock hit the bar with a shot. Then
Chelsea's favourite referee, David Elleray, awarded a dubious penalty to United and the floodgates opened. Eventually
losing 4-0 we trudged home with my tears mixing with the rain as some Chelsea fans took turns to kick some Manchester
United fans up the bum. That was the team I wanted to emulate. Cantona, McClair, Hughes. What a team that was.
The plus side was that we had qualified for the Cup Winners Cup!
